It’s been a whirlwind weekend for Air Canada passengers with plans to restart operations on Sunday after a shock 72-hour strike that impacted peak travel worldwide, including Australia, now continuing until Monday evening.
The continuing Air Canada strike meant operations were shut down again on Sunday, 17 August as flight crew took the unusual route of defying the Canadian government’s back-to-work orders.
On its website, Air Canada stated it has suspended its plan to gradually resume operations on Sunday after flight attendants refused to return to work due to directions from the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), the union that represents the workers.
All Air Canada and Air Canada Rouge flights have been cancelled until further notice.
Canada’s national carrier added that it would resume normal operations on Monday evening (local time).
Air Canada strike: How it started
Air Canada began suspending flights on Thursday, 14 August (local time) after CUPE issued a 72-hour strike notice.
The industrial action has caused major travel disruptions with several Australian flights from Sydney and Brisbane already impacted and more to follow.
Air Canada told Karryon on Friday afternoon that flight AC33 from Vancouver to Sydney, which was due to depart at 10.40pm Thursday evening (local time) and arrive early Saturday in Sydney, had been cancelled.
Return Sydney–Vancouver flights on Saturday, Sunday and Monday was also affected with tomorrow’s AC33 service also cancelled. Brisbane–Vancouver flights over the weekend were also cancelled, including today’s 10am departure.
As the Air Canada strike was set to commence on Saturday at 1am (ET), Canada’s national airline began “a phased wind-down of most of our operations, to be completed over the next two days”, it said in a statement.
At a press conference on Thursday (local time), Air Canada Chief Operations Officer Mark Nasr said: “The impact that this is going to have on our customers is profound”.
According to Nasr, the first set of cancellations processed on Thursday affected “largely long-haul international flights due to depart tonight [Thursday]”.
“The cancellations will proceed and grow in magnitude. By tomorrow evening, we expect to have cancelled flights affecting over 100,000 customers, and then, of course, by the time we get to 1am on Saturday morning, we’ll be completely grounded.
“We expect that that will affect 130,000 customers a day,” he said.
Traveller impacts
Nasr said that impacted customers will receive notifications via email or SMS.
“We’re going to make every attempt we can to rebook our customers on over 120 other airlines, including our competitors,” he added.
“But of course, and unfortunately, because this is the peak of the summer travel season, there are very few seats available out there.
“For those customers who we are unable to reaccommodate, we’ll offer them a choice of two options. The first is a full refund of their ticket and any associated Air Canada services, and the second is an option to rebook their travel for a later date without any change fee,” Nasr said.
According to the carrier, passengers booked between 15–20 August 2025 can change flights for free if tickets were bought or Aeroplan rewards redeemed by 17 August. Changes can be made to travel between 22 August and 30 September 2025.
Due to the volume of cancellations, AC will also provide a full refund for the unused portion of tickets purchased on or before 15 August 2025 for travel between 18–19 August 2025.
AC noted that contact centre wait times may be longer than usual due to the Air Canada strike.
For the latest info, visit aircanada.com
